Dave Mustaine still isn’t fond of nu metal, in case you were wondering

Author Benedetta Baldin - 24.3.2025

Dave Mustaine, the guitarist, singer, and founder of Megadeth, has expressed over the years that he dislikes the nu metal movement. He was asked what he believes music does for individuals in a recent interview with LifeMinute, which he did with his family. In answer, he went back to solidifying his position towards the genre indicated earlier.

It depends. If you believe all of the colloquies about music, there’s all kinds of sayings and stuff. The one that comes to mind first with your question is music soothes the savage beast. And I don’t know who coined that phrase, but it’s pretty accurate, depending on the type of music. Now, if you play modern metal with the guys that can’t sing and they do the screaming bit, that’s really understandable to me, ’cause they can’t sing and they’re making the best of what they can do. There was a period in 2000 where we had these bands called — I think it was ‘nu metal’, and they didn’t do any solos. Well, why didn’t they do any solos? They couldn’t do solos. And thank God that genre went away. People started to learn how to do solos. I would say, if you’re in a ‘nu metal’ band, you probably would be challenged even playing ‘Johnny B. Goode‘. So I’m glad that went away.

He also took a stand about modern music.

Well, I like some of the older music because new stuff — I mean, all the good chords are taken. And if you think back when I started 40 years ago, the music playing field didn’t have millions of kids sitting at home doing guitar riffs into their computer and then posting it online. There’s good and bad with everything, and when people do things for their own art, that’s great. But when you start seeing these manufactured records that bandmembers didn’t play on, that’s fraud. So, I like bands that really play what they do. One of my favorite guitar players is one of the simplest guys in the world — it’s the guy from Pink Floyd, David Gilmour. He could do more with one note than some of the guys playing nowadays can do with 12. And it’s just a matter of feeling — feeling. The guitar, you’re touching it, so it’s an extension of your spirit, your soul, and how you make it sound. If it’s like [makes farting noise], that kind of stuff, well, you probably haven’t bonded with the instrument yet. Playing a violin — violin has gotta be one of the most dreadful sounds ever when you’re learning it, because the sound of it and rosin the bow and all that stuff is almost as bad as having someone practice on a wind instrument, like a sax or a clarinet.